If Ctrl+Alt+Del is the king of shitty gaming webcomics, then VG Cats is the scheming vizier with a sinister goatee, plotting to take the throne as all the pieces fall into place. It is trying, oh how it is trying, to be the worst fucking game-related webcomic in recorded history. It's aiming for that dubious title like the World fuckin' Series. Walk with me, reader, through the timeline of history as we uncover the twisted path that VG Cats has walked, the slow descent into the very sewers of the Internet and beyond.
Let's begin with a few base observations about the site design. People have whined that site design isn't important to the webcomic as a whole. These people? They are wrong. Just as you should not set out your doctoral thesis like Timecube.com, you should not set out your webcomic site as if you are attempting to keep people out like some crotchety old man screaming for you blasted kids to get the Hell off his lawn. You're trying, one would assume, to gather readers and entertain the masses. Making it difficult for them is kind of a backwards step in this regard.
Case in point, if you're making a webcomic, you should at least have the webcomic on the principle page. Also you should have it immediately readable from the moment the page is loaded, no scrolling necessary, but since VG Cats fails on point one we'll forget that and move on. There's a host of buttons - previous, next, first, last, archives - and despite a large number of pointless graphics, the design is fairly solid. This isn't fair. I know good webcomics with bad designs, why the fuck does this atrocity have to have a vaguely decent layout?
So, why is it bad? Why, why, why. That's all you bitches ever want to know. I dream of a day when you accept my word as gospel. But all right, I'll indulge you one more time and explain in loving detail the crimes of VG Cats.
As evidence by the latest strip, Scott Ramsoomair is guilty of quite a few webcomic sins. Notice the cut-and-paste - you can tell it's trying to out-CAD CAD, can't you? You see, much as a maintained camera angle might be easy to do, it's boring. Throw in some closeups, change angle - a few small things like this will have people looking at your webcomic in a new light! There'll be dancing in the streets, ticker-tape parades, joy bestowed to all mankind! Except if your webcomic is VG Cats none of that will happen, because it'll still be VG Cats.
A lot of people, by which I mean a lot of idiots, will laud VG Cats for simply having suuuper facial expressions. I'm not sure I could think of anything - animal, vegetable or mineral - as easily amused as a VG Cats fan. You see, while the earlier attempts have some glimmer of life to them, pretty much all the later ones are shit.
Shit.
Yes, that is indeed one fuckin' huge comic dedicated to a guy pissing himself. Not just any guy, a cat. NOT A FURRY GUYS, HONEST!
In case you hadn't noticed, Ramsoomair has two kinds of facial expression for his characters, which I will demonstrate using Japanese emoticons: o_o and O_O
To use the term "one trick pony" would be pretty apt, I guess. Ramsoomair loves those googly eyes. He can't get enough of character expressions which are basically huge eyeballs and mawkish grins. Sometimes there's pupils, sometimes there's not. Sometimes the eyes are just funny little squashed ovals. Sometimes they're distorted semi-circles rather than regular circles.
The point I'm getting at is that for the last few years, fans of VG Cats have been eating up pretty much the same fucking expression over and over again. I'd call it a creepy fetish, but the fact it's a closet furry webcomic (let's face it: there is at least ONE furry in the world who got a huge boner from that "cat pissing himself" strip) kinda covers the fetish territory amply. So let's just call it what it is: an utter lack of caring. Apathy. No desire to do any better.
I could divulge here in how Ramsoomair is an utter jackass. How he managed to get himself banned from even turning up at a convention, let alone having a table there, by offending hundreds of people through his callous attitude and egocentric posturing. A variety of stories about how people who meet him in person grow to loathe him entirely within the space of a few minutes. But I feel that getting you to hate this pathetic shell of a man just through dissecting his work is a challenge. Let's see if I can do it!
Let's look at this strip here. Can you spot the first thing that's wrong? That's right! Ramsoomair has self-inserted his shitty "superhero" furso- uh, persona. Pantsman, he's called! Ha ha! Witty. I'm sure that the Hot Topic crowd are just rolling in the aisles when you unleashed that one. A superhero - based around pants?! It's so fresh and original and even though this is sarcasm I die a little inside just typing it.
Again, like I said, all the facial expressions are just big ol' circles for eyes. I suppose that if you used this technique sparingly - very fucking sparingly - it might be amusing. But point out to me where, in that comic, anyone has a remotely normal-looking expression. Answer: nowhere. It's a classic case of overuse with a fresh new attitude that just screams appeal to the valuable 18-30 market share! Fantastic. Any VG Cats fan will tell you that these expressions are what "make" the strip work. Any VG Cats fan with a passing grasp of the English language who'll deign to speak to you, that is. But... how do they make the strip work. The basic joke is "LMAO PSP SUCKZ AM I RITE" which is pretty poorly done to begin with. I mean, every gaming webcomic on the Internet goes for that, which is a pretty good indicator that maybe you shouldn't be cramming yourself into a crowded market like an overzealous hamster taking part in some sordid affair.
The punchline, basically, is the final expression. You're meant to laugh because the PSP got left behind because the DS is a superior system. (Mario Kart DS? HELL FUCKIN' YEAH) But... what's so funny about the expression? All the other expressions in the strip are incredibly similar. Sure, this time there's tears and wobbly pupils, but... but nothin' much else. In fact I can only assume that the expression is meant to be the punchline, because I cannot for the life of me think what else could be. I didn't just not laugh at this strip, I wasn't even sure it was meant to be funny. It defies comprehension. Now I'm sure I'll get a few dozen comments calling me a massive fag for not getting "the joke" but I'm fairly sure most decent human beings with working brains will stand by me and say that this shit ain't funny. So, like, three comments.
Ramsoomair, I can only assume you have a modicum of talent elsewise. You manage to draw little anthropomorphic kittens in various states of dress and undress. You have shown remarkable aptitude in the drawing of men's erections, fifteen-year-old's tits and naked, middle-aged Italians encrusted in bodyhair. Let's skip the reuse of a rather bland movie theatre background - because boy oh boy you recoloured it the second time you pasted it into your little game of "assign dialogue to generic images". That makes everything cool.
Every one of those comics is the same. Regardless of joke or premise, I guarantee you that some part of the humour is supposed to come from the googly-eyed reaction shots. Or, in one memorable case, a 15-year-old girl exposing her (thankfully pixelated) goods. You have to wonder, though, just how much care Ramsoomair put into drawing those perky breasts before scrubbing them away with a Photoshop filter. Perhaps he has an unspoiled copy, and he keeps it under his pillow at night. Who knows.
Still, not only does VG Cats show itself to be so desperately devoid of humour it manages to update once a week and still suck, but it demonstrates a pathetic grasp of the very pop culture he's trying to make a living from. Hell, I wonder if he's even played half the games he makes terrible strips about. I'm not in his target audience - easily amused gamer furries - but I can't imagine even those kinds of people finding some of the so-called "jokes" to be amusing. Which is, I suppose, why he throws in those stupid repetative facial expressions as a way of distracting you. Nevermind that the joke is shit - hahaha! He has big eyes and a silly grin.
I'm not really sure how better to get across that VG Cats is a bad webcomic other than showering you with links and stating the obvious. I am at a loss to think how you can look at this fucking webcomic and not think it's anything but terrible. It's like trying to inform someone that the sky is blue. Look at the sky, you will see it is blue. However, webcomics do not attract the rational among us, as you might expect. Show them a blue sky and they'll argue what blue is. What a sky is. They'll tell you that you don't "get" blue. Or skies. Or you're just jealous of the sky's blueness. Or that you're a jackass and they don't have to listen to you at all. You'll never comprehend just how frustrating doing this shit is. Never.
There's a number of ways that VG Cats could be improved. However, Ramsoomair is so wrapped up in his own ego - like a rampant womb of selfish narcissism - that I doubt he would descend from Mount Olympus to commune with the mere mortals below. This is one of the reasons I dislike him - like Terracciano, he can't take criticism so he avoids it entirely, but unlike Mookie he's not a weepy little bitch. He's an absolute cock instead. He's a conceited, arrogant son of a bitch. This is the same man who showed up at a convention for all of an hour, blew off every single event and panel that he promised to do and threw his badge at a member of staff as he stormed off. Classy! He may be sub-Buckley when it comes to making shitty webcomics, but by God he has that man soundly beat when it comes to being a swaggering, pretentious wanker with delusions of grandeur.
To end on a high note, I present to you the only worthwhile VG Cats comic I have seen today. Here's hoping that this comic and its creator cease to exist sometime very soon - although it'll never be soon enough.
Let's begin with a few base observations about the site design. People have whined that site design isn't important to the webcomic as a whole. These people? They are wrong. Just as you should not set out your doctoral thesis like Timecube.com, you should not set out your webcomic site as if you are attempting to keep people out like some crotchety old man screaming for you blasted kids to get the Hell off his lawn. You're trying, one would assume, to gather readers and entertain the masses. Making it difficult for them is kind of a backwards step in this regard.
Case in point, if you're making a webcomic, you should at least have the webcomic on the principle page. Also you should have it immediately readable from the moment the page is loaded, no scrolling necessary, but since VG Cats fails on point one we'll forget that and move on. There's a host of buttons - previous, next, first, last, archives - and despite a large number of pointless graphics, the design is fairly solid. This isn't fair. I know good webcomics with bad designs, why the fuck does this atrocity have to have a vaguely decent layout?
So, why is it bad? Why, why, why. That's all you bitches ever want to know. I dream of a day when you accept my word as gospel. But all right, I'll indulge you one more time and explain in loving detail the crimes of VG Cats.
As evidence by the latest strip, Scott Ramsoomair is guilty of quite a few webcomic sins. Notice the cut-and-paste - you can tell it's trying to out-CAD CAD, can't you? You see, much as a maintained camera angle might be easy to do, it's boring. Throw in some closeups, change angle - a few small things like this will have people looking at your webcomic in a new light! There'll be dancing in the streets, ticker-tape parades, joy bestowed to all mankind! Except if your webcomic is VG Cats none of that will happen, because it'll still be VG Cats.
A lot of people, by which I mean a lot of idiots, will laud VG Cats for simply having suuuper facial expressions. I'm not sure I could think of anything - animal, vegetable or mineral - as easily amused as a VG Cats fan. You see, while the earlier attempts have some glimmer of life to them, pretty much all the later ones are shit.
Shit.
Yes, that is indeed one fuckin' huge comic dedicated to a guy pissing himself. Not just any guy, a cat. NOT A FURRY GUYS, HONEST!
In case you hadn't noticed, Ramsoomair has two kinds of facial expression for his characters, which I will demonstrate using Japanese emoticons: o_o and O_O
To use the term "one trick pony" would be pretty apt, I guess. Ramsoomair loves those googly eyes. He can't get enough of character expressions which are basically huge eyeballs and mawkish grins. Sometimes there's pupils, sometimes there's not. Sometimes the eyes are just funny little squashed ovals. Sometimes they're distorted semi-circles rather than regular circles.
The point I'm getting at is that for the last few years, fans of VG Cats have been eating up pretty much the same fucking expression over and over again. I'd call it a creepy fetish, but the fact it's a closet furry webcomic (let's face it: there is at least ONE furry in the world who got a huge boner from that "cat pissing himself" strip) kinda covers the fetish territory amply. So let's just call it what it is: an utter lack of caring. Apathy. No desire to do any better.
I could divulge here in how Ramsoomair is an utter jackass. How he managed to get himself banned from even turning up at a convention, let alone having a table there, by offending hundreds of people through his callous attitude and egocentric posturing. A variety of stories about how people who meet him in person grow to loathe him entirely within the space of a few minutes. But I feel that getting you to hate this pathetic shell of a man just through dissecting his work is a challenge. Let's see if I can do it!
Let's look at this strip here. Can you spot the first thing that's wrong? That's right! Ramsoomair has self-inserted his shitty "superhero" furso- uh, persona. Pantsman, he's called! Ha ha! Witty. I'm sure that the Hot Topic crowd are just rolling in the aisles when you unleashed that one. A superhero - based around pants?! It's so fresh and original and even though this is sarcasm I die a little inside just typing it.
Again, like I said, all the facial expressions are just big ol' circles for eyes. I suppose that if you used this technique sparingly - very fucking sparingly - it might be amusing. But point out to me where, in that comic, anyone has a remotely normal-looking expression. Answer: nowhere. It's a classic case of overuse with a fresh new attitude that just screams appeal to the valuable 18-30 market share! Fantastic. Any VG Cats fan will tell you that these expressions are what "make" the strip work. Any VG Cats fan with a passing grasp of the English language who'll deign to speak to you, that is. But... how do they make the strip work. The basic joke is "LMAO PSP SUCKZ AM I RITE" which is pretty poorly done to begin with. I mean, every gaming webcomic on the Internet goes for that, which is a pretty good indicator that maybe you shouldn't be cramming yourself into a crowded market like an overzealous hamster taking part in some sordid affair.
The punchline, basically, is the final expression. You're meant to laugh because the PSP got left behind because the DS is a superior system. (Mario Kart DS? HELL FUCKIN' YEAH) But... what's so funny about the expression? All the other expressions in the strip are incredibly similar. Sure, this time there's tears and wobbly pupils, but... but nothin' much else. In fact I can only assume that the expression is meant to be the punchline, because I cannot for the life of me think what else could be. I didn't just not laugh at this strip, I wasn't even sure it was meant to be funny. It defies comprehension. Now I'm sure I'll get a few dozen comments calling me a massive fag for not getting "the joke" but I'm fairly sure most decent human beings with working brains will stand by me and say that this shit ain't funny. So, like, three comments.
Ramsoomair, I can only assume you have a modicum of talent elsewise. You manage to draw little anthropomorphic kittens in various states of dress and undress. You have shown remarkable aptitude in the drawing of men's erections, fifteen-year-old's tits and naked, middle-aged Italians encrusted in bodyhair. Let's skip the reuse of a rather bland movie theatre background - because boy oh boy you recoloured it the second time you pasted it into your little game of "assign dialogue to generic images". That makes everything cool.
Every one of those comics is the same. Regardless of joke or premise, I guarantee you that some part of the humour is supposed to come from the googly-eyed reaction shots. Or, in one memorable case, a 15-year-old girl exposing her (thankfully pixelated) goods. You have to wonder, though, just how much care Ramsoomair put into drawing those perky breasts before scrubbing them away with a Photoshop filter. Perhaps he has an unspoiled copy, and he keeps it under his pillow at night. Who knows.
Still, not only does VG Cats show itself to be so desperately devoid of humour it manages to update once a week and still suck, but it demonstrates a pathetic grasp of the very pop culture he's trying to make a living from. Hell, I wonder if he's even played half the games he makes terrible strips about. I'm not in his target audience - easily amused gamer furries - but I can't imagine even those kinds of people finding some of the so-called "jokes" to be amusing. Which is, I suppose, why he throws in those stupid repetative facial expressions as a way of distracting you. Nevermind that the joke is shit - hahaha! He has big eyes and a silly grin.
I'm not really sure how better to get across that VG Cats is a bad webcomic other than showering you with links and stating the obvious. I am at a loss to think how you can look at this fucking webcomic and not think it's anything but terrible. It's like trying to inform someone that the sky is blue. Look at the sky, you will see it is blue. However, webcomics do not attract the rational among us, as you might expect. Show them a blue sky and they'll argue what blue is. What a sky is. They'll tell you that you don't "get" blue. Or skies. Or you're just jealous of the sky's blueness. Or that you're a jackass and they don't have to listen to you at all. You'll never comprehend just how frustrating doing this shit is. Never.
There's a number of ways that VG Cats could be improved. However, Ramsoomair is so wrapped up in his own ego - like a rampant womb of selfish narcissism - that I doubt he would descend from Mount Olympus to commune with the mere mortals below. This is one of the reasons I dislike him - like Terracciano, he can't take criticism so he avoids it entirely, but unlike Mookie he's not a weepy little bitch. He's an absolute cock instead. He's a conceited, arrogant son of a bitch. This is the same man who showed up at a convention for all of an hour, blew off every single event and panel that he promised to do and threw his badge at a member of staff as he stormed off. Classy! He may be sub-Buckley when it comes to making shitty webcomics, but by God he has that man soundly beat when it comes to being a swaggering, pretentious wanker with delusions of grandeur.
To end on a high note, I present to you the only worthwhile VG Cats comic I have seen today. Here's hoping that this comic and its creator cease to exist sometime very soon - although it'll never be soon enough.
158 comments:
- I agree. It's a pretty horrid webcomic, however, I feel that dissing on the eye style primarily is stretching it when you could easily just point out the writing style lacks any flavor or humor at all. It's like pvponline for furries, but at least pvponline has some decent ideas chained together.
- Rasoomair is pretty much a dick, but he has at least one funny strip under his belt, and that's the Final Fantasy XI one. Because it's 100% fucking true. But find a person who doesn't play FFXI and they wouldn't give a shit. This is a critical flaw of the gaming comic genre, because it just can't stand on its own without riding on someone else's coattails.
- But find a person who doesn't play FFXI and they wouldn't give a shit. This is a critical flaw of the gaming comic genre, because it just can't stand on its own without riding on someone else's coattails. But that applies to any form of referential humour, not just video games. A joke about, say, driving or politics only works if the audience drives or knows politics. The vast majority of humour relies on shared experiences to some extent, and only a small minority is able to detach itself from individual experiences altogether. I admit, gaming comics are particular prone to this sort of niche humour, but all that's significant is the area of the limits, not the fact that limits exist. Also, I must say I was unaware of Ramsoomair's alleged dickery- out of interest, does anyone have any links to something elaborate on these accusations?
- I feel that dissing on the eye style primarily is stretching it when you could easily just point out the writing style lacks any flavor or humor at all. This is what I was talking about when I went off about the "sky is blue" thing. It's utterly obvious to me that the writing style isn't so much of a style as it is shit. If I ever make a "More VG Cats" post, I'll dedicate it to tearing apart the writing some more.
- Also, I must say I was unaware of Ramsoomair's alleged dickery- out of interest, does anyone have any links to something elaborate on these accusations? The latest dickery, and the prime source of my examples, was Otakuthon. Look into that, why not.
- "But that applies to any form of referential humour, not just video games. A joke about, say, driving or politics only works if the audience drives or knows politics. The vast majority of humour relies on shared experiences to some extent, and only a small minority is able to detach itself from individual experiences altogether. I admit, gaming comics are particular prone to this sort of niche humour, but all that's significant is the area of the limits, not the fact that limits exist." You do have a point, but the kind of referencing that paints gaming comics into such a corner is far worse than the scope of politics. The point is, though, that a good writer will be able to take these niche subjects or referential humor and make them accessible so that you're not just pleasing your niche over and over again. Rasoomair and other gaming comics are relying on the crutch of people already being intimately familiar with the subject matter at hand. It's a shortcut and it's lazy.
- I suppose if I mentioned that Penny Arcade has made jokes about games I've never played and never will play - which I've found actually funny - will probably have people calling me a sellout before I finish typing this sentence. It's all about how you go about it, really. If you're going to be insular and make some reference that people will only get if they've played the game all the way through, then your audience is much more restricted than if you'd made a more general joke that didn't revolve around some cruicial point. Also not being a shitty hack like Ramsoomair probably falls into the equation somewhere. Guy just ain't funny.
- "Also not being a shitty hack like Ramsoomair probably falls into the equation somewhere. Guy just ain't funny. " That has a lot to do with it. I've also laughed at a lot of shit that I don't know the origin of, but clever writing will make even the most obscure things funny to someone that had never heard of it before. I think we pretty much agree with each other, John. Your last post sums up my thoughts pretty well.
- You do have a point, but the kind of referencing that paints gaming comics into such a corner is far worse than the scope of politics. The point is, though, that a good writer will be able to take these niche subjects or referential humor and make them accessible so that you're not just pleasing your niche over and over again. Rasoomair and other gaming comics are relying on the crutch of people already being intimately familiar with the subject matter at hand. It's a shortcut and it's lazy. I see what you mean, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it a "critical flaw" in the genre. A frustrating and overly-common tendency, yes, but it's not an inherent flaw in the concept of a gaming-centred comic.
- Oh my god I loathe VG Cats. I loathe it to the core of my being. But I'm surprised that you didn't even mention the strip's most obvious flaw (to me, anyway), which is the way the comic takes a joke that could have been funny in brief and then rambles, on and on, spiraling down the page on tangent after tangent as if it were going for some kind of record. I've seen a number of VGCats strips that could have been funny if left at just the first two panels, but which, instead, are left to barrel on for twenty fucking panels to end on another one of those stupid fucking "I R CONSTIPATED!!! LOLLZ" expressions. It is basically the Family Guy of webcomics. You will find that mostly the same kinds of people fan over it, too.
- It'd be more like Family Guy if it kept telling the same terrible joke over and over and over, although it's probably heading that way, yeah.
- "like a rampant womb of selfish narcissism" Surely all narcissism is selfish...
- I used to enjoy VGCats, but that was a loooooong time ago. It just stopped being funny altogether. I can't t pinpoint where it started to run out of gas but it's been running on fumes for at least a couple years. I think you ran on about the expressions a little too much but you basically nailed what's wrong about the comic. Wanna hear something great? He makes fun of "animu" all the time and then makes a fannish comic like this one: (http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=225) and writes the following newspost: "This strip is why I love having a comic. Having the freedom to do whatever I want with it. I can choose to vent about anything, make the worst possible jokes, and even do something sad once and a while. I'll catch flak now and then from people but I can't be bothered to care. I thank my fans for the support but ask that you respect that this is my canvas. If I don't do this once and a while, I will get bored with it. "OMG SCOTT THIS ISN'T FUNNY. WHAR FUNNY?!" My canvas. Don't like? gtfo!" I understand his point (kinda...) but "I can't be bothered to care" and "MY CANVAS" just suggests he's not open to constructive criticism, i.e. you're not that funny. And IIRC he used to be a decent guy, he probably started acting dickish when his sense of humor drank bleach and died.
- Man, that guy sounds like a total jerk from those Otakuthon stories. Wherever did you hear about them?
- tehkou: Hmm, I don't know, I'd say CAD is more of the Family Guy of the webcomic world. All that ridiculous random Ethan crap and overstating the joke in all 4 panels. Thus the hamhanded "comics". http://www.starslipcrisis.com/ham/melonpool.gif I hope, in my selfish wish and uncompassionate way, John Solomon does "More CAD". Such a return to such crap may injure his mind, but that is how much of a selfish shit I am in reading justified hate and shitiness of Buckley.
- It seems like most of the past year, he hasn't even managed to keep the once-a-week schedule very well. Closer to once a month. And the thing about the niche humor... In the right format, it's easy enough to introduce most niche humor with a small bit of background, making it rather accessible. Especially when it's a subset of another group, like gaming (or even "online gaming"). I remember some webcomic doing a decent job of that but heck if I can remember what.
- I tried to read some of this webcomic, but I noticed that no matter what comics I read, it made me feel precisely nothing. It wasn't shittily drawn enough to assault my eyes, or creepy enough to disturb me - just an infinity of bland dullness and absence of funny. Even very bad comic authors will accidentally raise a smile here and there, but not this heap of crap. I would rather have a comic that made me annoyed over its shittiness than this beige waste of web space, which I now know is always lurking out there somewhere. Why anyone would choose to read this dross is a mystery to me.
- The thing about niche comics is that there is positively no need for hundreds of webcomics pandering to the same niche. This is especially true for gaming comics, since there seems to be some mystical force ensuring that every single one sucks by default. See also: Furry comics, anime comics, emo comics.
- actually, it's funny that this comic is the first you've reviewed that still exists on my list to check. Of course, seeing as it's been dragging and not that great for quite a while now, I think the article here has given me the final push to take it off. I agree with what another anonymous person said... it used to be appealing, but somewhere it was lost. Though you bring up some good points, I find sometimes that your elaborations lack a bit. That being said, I still check this blog frequently, as it usually brings a crack of a smile to my face, and seems to be a very good collection of overrated works.
- "He may be sub-Buckley when it comes to making shitty webcomics, but by God he has that man soundly beat when it comes to being a swaggering, pretentious wanker with delusions of grandeur." You've got to give him credit. That's no easy task.
- My thinking re: the Family Guy comparison is that, in addition to the way both of them allow their tiniest joke fragments to overstay their welcome indefinitely, they both use referential humor in the same way, not as a single tool in the toolbox to create multi-faceted humor, but as nerdsploitation humor to earn a free fanbase. After all, throwing out references is much easier than doing something silly like, you know, making actual jokes based around comedic timing, characterization, or situational irony. I mean, that stuff is hard! Note also how both products also use gross-out humor and random wackiness as meaty cardboard filler whenever the reference train slows down. (Granted, anonymous, CAD might be just as bad for this -- I haven't seen as much of it as I have VG Cats. It just happens that I've met more VG Cats fans in my life than I have CAD fans, so I've been exposed to more of it.) Now compare Family Guy (or VG Cats) to a show like, say, The Simpsons in its heyday (or, say, Penny Arcade, though perhaps to a lesser extent), and you realize just how shallow it is. The Simpsons used plenty of referential humor in its best episodes, but they're still funny and entertaining even if you don't get the reference -- even if you didn't even realize a reference was being made -- because there was always something else going on. If you don't get a reference in a Family Guy episode, the best it might elicit is a desperate chuckle at the silly randomness of it all, and then you sit in silence as you wait about 90 seconds for the reference to fucking stop happening (This all brings me to another point, which is how much it sickens and irritates me just how easy it is to get fans on the internet. The internet is so full of socially maladjusted people looking desperately for approval, that all you have to do is say "hey, remember that precious thing from your childhood? I remember it too!" to get them all hanging on you as if you were the hunky captain of the football team. The same people who gazed, misty-eyed, at the popular kids' table back in high school suddenly feel invited to the cool party just because a popular webcomic did a fucking strip about Voltron.) Preaching to the choir on a blog such as this one, perhaps, but anyway, yeah. It pisses me off. Fuck VG Cats.
- Case in point about Penny Arcade: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/07/20 I didn't know what the fuck this was until I read the news post, but on it's own, it's pretty funny. I'd like to find out more dick-headed-ness of Ramsoomair too. Can he possibly top creating your own charity out of jealousy or showing your cock to a 16 year old? What the fuck kind of name is Ramsoomair anyways? Sounds like some animu bullshit.
- What the fuck kind of name is Ramsoomair anyways? Sounds like some animu bullshit. It's French, idiot, it doesn't even sound remotely Japanese. If you're going to insult the man, at least try harder than this kind of presumptious bullshit.
- tehkou: I'd get in a pissy argument about how the Simpsons haven't been funny in the last 12 years (IMO anyway), but you do bring up some really good points. Hell, I'm one of those damn internet peeps who get all "wowie zow" when some other person mentions an interest in my ,ah, interests. God, I need to brush up on socializing outside the damn cimputer.
- Was it this year's Otakuthon that Ramsoomair did this or was it last year? Google isn't helping for the search and the VG Cats forum is currently not taking new forum members.
- anonymous: Honestly, I would agree with you about the Simpsons, which is why I was sure to say "in its heyday." I'd argue that even now it still has more nutritional content than than Family Guy, though. mike: That strip is almost funnier if you don't know that it's a reference to an actual product.
- You probably don't do requests, but I believe some other really shitty webcomics are Snafu Comics and any crap that pervert Bleedman does. That guy can draw really well but his writing is pure shit.
- Tis a pretty crummy comic overall, but I think that perhaps, just PERHAPS, it has it's moments.
- wow even deegan had at least some retards hopping in to try and defend it. this is like some kind of christmas miracle, where people hug each other and politely discuss the different degrees of shittiness of vgcats also way to go guy above me. you fucked it up. what's it like to ruin christmas?
- I agree with Xige. Snafu sucks hard. Well, the first Pepsi Blue comic was OK, but the rest of it sucks.
- I enjoy reading vgcats from time to time but i don't really care about the humour of it if any exists at all. I'm kind of more interested in the random acts of Guro/Violence :p http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=193 http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=145 Haven't seen much of it lately though :/
- "Guro"? I'm hoping this is an ironic instance of fanboy-japanese, and not of someone turned on by Winnie the Pooh being eviscerated.
- I think you are referring to ero guro :p The word guro itself means grotesque ;p
- The other problem with VG Cats and other webcomics is that asides from videogame references/pop culture the audience is supposed to laugh at simply because it's a reference to Voltron or Metal Gear Solid or whatever -- in the case of VG Cats it seems to be "remember fill-in-the-blank? now it says swear words!" -- are all the webcomics that rely too much on the crutch of "over the top violence". Can't think of a decent punchline to anything? Just have one character chop up the other with a chainsaw or stab them in the eyes or what have you. It's as much as lazy joke as pop culture references.
- The only redeeming thing about pop-culture extravaganza shows like Robot Chicken is that they hit you with the jokes at a rapid-fire pace, never letting up the slack or dragging the joke on too long (even the dreaded Family Guy dragging-jokes are at most once per episode). VGCats does 16 or more panels, on average. It's charmless and, if this is possible, over-stylized. Ransoomairio might as well draw template heads and stick magnetic googly eyes and scowly mouths on them- not that he even bothers to do that right, the mouths don't even stay on the face. Combine that with the fact that he's got one of the most repulsive fanbases ever (I should know, I spent far too much time amongst them) and you've got a wreck of a comic that I've been waiting for you to review since day one. Thank you, Mr. Solomon.
- Man and I though Ramsoomaroo was bad enough on Xbox live. I've played with him once, and that was enough. That being said, the only reason I even hang out at the VG Cats forum anymore is because it's more of a generic forum as opposed to a forum for the comic. Which is good, because, let's face it, the comic is kind of bad. And by kind of, I mean absolutly, and by bad, I mean shit. I didn't even notice that all the eyes in the PSP comic were LOL CIRCLES until you pointed it out, but I've found maybe two comics of VG Cats funny, and after reading this I am deeply ashamed of admitting that. Hell after this I'm deeply ashamed of having read the archives. Then again I found this comic when I was a stupid teenager and was entertained by the LOL RANDOM TACO MOOSE TOQEEETOE humor in Invader Zim when I found VG Cats, so I GUESS it may be forgivable. I'm glad I grew up, because now I have something called standards, which is something VG Cats fails to live up to. If it wasn't for the fact that talking about the actual comic on the forum was put in an entire subsection on the bottom that I can not look at most of the time, I would have left a long time ago.
- Well from what I've heard, Rasoomair actually fucking hates doing the webcomic anymore and only does it so he can sell merchandise; the only thing paying his bills. People I've talked with say he hates fans that would come up to him and recommend referencial comic ideas because he can't stand them He's the king prick in selling out. Hell, the comic doesn't even update on a weekly basis anymore. It hasn't for the past year. He only updates it when he feels like it.
- I have a question for you, Mr. Solomon. Where's your webcomic? I mean, you preach against bad webcomics, even so boldly as to take on giants such as VGC and CAD, so surely you yourself have a comic that is a model mixture of humor and plot upon which you base these criticisms and that would, should you advertise it, make the likes of Tim Buckley and Scott Ramsoomair drop to their knees and weep with envy. Surely you do, yes?
- Congratulations, you bloody imbecile, you're the fifteenth or so person that's asked him that question. The "you must do x before you may critique x" argument is ineffective, inappropriate for any situation and you have a low mind for attempting to use it.
- "I have a question for you, Mr. Solomon. Where's your webcomic?" You're kidding, right? Please say you're kidding. Because if you're not kidding, I'm going to need to sit in front of the TV watching all of Roger Ebert's classic comedy movies until my faith in humanity is restored.
- "I have a question for you, Mr. Solomon. Where's your webcomic?" Shut the hell up. You may as well say you can't dislike a movie because you haven't been a director.
- ...you preach against bad webcomics, even so boldly as to take on giants such as VGC and CAD... You don't need to have a brilliant webcomic to rail against "giants" like the aforementioned pieces of shit. You just need to have a functioning brain. Also, get your mouth off Buckley and Ramsoonair's cocks. "Boldly", my ass.
- Oh, and for some clue about what happened at Otakuthon...this is the first helpful thing Google gave me. ...Well, that and how he canceled his appearance at Otakuthon 2006.
- obviously the 'only good comic' is from doom 3
- I have a question for you, Mr. Solomon. Where's your webcomic? Where's your blog?
- Perhaps, if all the jerkery and hating-his-own-comic is true, VG Cats has in fact become an elaborate trick to determine exactly how bad a webcomic must become before it stops being popular. If so, the results are massively depressing.
- http://bloodwing.comicgenesis.com/ There. That should fit in here nicely.
- Unfortunately, yes, it does.
- THAT CRAZY ASS MOTHERFUCKER WILL SOMEDAY SCAN A NAPKIN DOODLE OF THE PINK CAT WITH HER LEGS SPREAD OPEN AND GO "OK PEOPLE AERIS HERE IS KIND OF RANDY, SO GO AHEAD AND POSTS YOUR FURTHINGMABOBS OR WHATEVER CORNHOLING HER." AND ACT LIKE SOME SORT OF FURFAG VERSION OF MAX HARDCORE. PLEASE DRAW YOUR DISGUSTING NEON JADED ANIMAL THINGS BONING THE RETARDED AVATAR I DID FOR ONE OF MY CATS, HE'LL SAY 4CHAN AND GBS WILL SHIT THEMSELVES SCREAMING AT BETRAYING PURE :AWESOME: LULZ BLOOD, BUT THE AFTERMATH IS GOING TO BE SOME EVANGELION ENDING SHIT
- Knew it be only a matter of time befor you attacked something i liked, oh well, Que Sera, Sera
- rai, He's only continuing it because one, he realizes he'd never build another fanbase of morons with another comic, or he's too lazy to try and improve or start a whole new comic and build a new fanbase. He only wants the money he gets from marketing and pushing his merchandice ,which half the time has nothing to do with the comic, but just random shit he comes up with.
- Hey Solomon I love your work! I don't know if you take pointers but you should make an article about Gunnerkrigg Court - man that comic is the epitome of awful! Check it out if you can handle the horrendous: http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/
- You make me cry! I want a review like that for Ted Pax! Pweeeeaaasseeee! I want one! You'll surely have ALOT to say about it! pweety pweease? :3
- I first looked into VG Cats a few years ago, because I kept hearing people say it was great. (Although from what I gather now, the only readers are people just there to masturbate to the main characters.) Every strip I read was like a bad stand-up comedy routine where the comedian says something like "What is the DEAL with _____? It's so stuuupid!" and I'm thinking "I know exactly what's up with _____, and it actually makes perfect sense. You sound like a complete jackass."
- To the other anonymous guy that proposed an article about Gunnerkrigg Court: Either you're a troll, or an idiot of gargantuan proportions. And since the latter would deny you the ability to read and write comprehensible sentences, you've got to be the first. The sad part is you get the attention you wanted perfectly, just like nobody can avoid noticing the smell if someone shits on the streets.
- Wow.... What do you do when Soloman nails a comic you like? I can't kill myself (I hate performance art), and I can't call him wrong (he probably isn't, especially since his description of the average fan exactly describes the person who first showed it to me. Including the furry part :| ). I guess I'll just endeavor to hate myself all that much more.
- What do you do when Soloman nails a comic you like? You stop liking it.
- Kris and I were going to announce this yesterday but didn’t for obvious reasons. We have opened up a new store to sell our merchandise. We call it Halfpixelstuff.com and it’s stuffed to the brim with new Starslip Crisis and PvP products.
- did Scott Krutz juat troll this blog?
- Yup, buy VG-cat merchandise at http://www.zestuff.com/vgcats/
- Another comic that's I've never found the least bit funny. It seems to be aimed at socially retarded 11-year-olds.
- Man, that stunt at the convention sounds pretty detailed. Were you actually at the convention when it happened? I can't find anything like that on a google.
- You're all missing the most important point: Ramsoomair is a stupid fucking name.
- Kingma, a journalist never reveals his sources - and a gentleman never tells.
- Another thing about VG Cats is that all his "referential humor" is late. Like, one or two months late. He makes "jokes" (not really jokes so much as 4chan memes) long after they've stopped being funny - see the "300" comic. Not only has that joke been done to death, but there's absolutely no punchline, unless we're supposed to laugh at everything turning into sprite form. At that point, "This is SPARTA" is only funny if you've somehow managed to avoid the internets since January. Also, the "Death Note" comic. Utter shit. It didn't even try to be funny. It was nothing but Santa Claus writing in the Death Note, and I guess the punchline was supposed to be "lol, death note." Never mind the fact that nobody who has seen or heard of "Death Note" is going to have a fucking clue what's going on. And lastly, Scott tries so hard and fails to be a well-known, non-anonymous /b/tard (oxymoron, I know). His jokes literally come straight from /a/, /b/, or /v/. And the worst part is that he doesn't even try to make them funny. It's just the Dane Cook line of thought, that all you have to do is make a reference, and it's instant humor. I can't believe I used to like VG Cats. Thank you, John, for showing me the light.
- First and foremost, I would like to thank you for this post. Should we ever cross paths in real life, I promise to buy you your drink of choice. A few years ago I was quite fond of VGCats. Not Ramsoomair himself (I couldn't stand his stupid front page linkdump), but the actual comic. This wouldn't last; 7 weeks later I was already bored with it. Yes, his rampant hypocracy, "RANDOM = FUNNY LOLZ" style of writing, and his elitist attitude are all very annoying, but what really irks me is his "busy busy schedule". I understand that people have other things to do, but when your comic is nothing more than 7 panels of the same image (with different eyes, of course) there is no excuse for being late. If you know you have a convention to be at and you won't be able to upload on Monday, why not: A. Get a friend to upload it for you. B. Use something similar to Comic Genesis' KeenTags and let your page self-update on Monday. C. Update your page a day late/early. I know it's just a webcomic, but there's no harm in taking just a LITTLE professionalism in your work.
- To Ramsoomair's credit, he was, if nothing else, dead right about the Transformers movie. http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=241
- That Transformers strip is a classic example of a strip that should've ended at the second panel, though. The "Transformers, roll out and product place" panel is a perfect punchline, and it just gets progressively less and less funny after that.
- To Ramsoomair's credit, he was, if nothing else, dead right about the Transformers movie. So were the other half a million webcomics that made jokes about the Transformers movie, except their strips on the subject were actually timely and didn't suck.
- Is his "Other Comics" section, consisting of the various comics he's done that even he admits are too stupid or impenetrable to be funny, fair game as well? I'd say yes, if only for this: http://www.vgcats.com/othercomics/?strip_id=14 Given John's story of Ramsoomair's behavior at his most recent con, a comic where his characters act disgusted at convention goers and fans seems relevant.
- On Scott and Otakuthon 2007, the account I heard from a staffer was that they screwed him over on location, sticking him in a remote corner and didn't tell anyone where he was. He did, in fact, do the panel that he promised to do. But hardly anyone showed up since Otakuthon had neglected to tell anyone when or where it was going to be. So, rather than put up with getting dicked around, he left. My guess is that the incident was a combo of incompetent and poorly organized staff plus Scott's own flair for hissy fits at the slightest error. Personally, I would have just kicked the con director in the ass until they advertised the event properly, then held another one. Goes to show how much Scott really cares about his fans!
- >> Personally, I would have just kicked the con director in the ass until they advertised the event properly, then held another one. Goes to show how much Scott really cares about his fans! if I may... The con director's an extremely competent person. I know her personally and it wasn't as though she stuck him in some godforsaken place. I found him easily enough. Plus there were people out with signs and telling people where Scott was, I can attest to at least one staffer losing her voice after having to do some barking over crowd noise and such. Scott's a dick and left without a word. End of story.
- I don't know if the flood of bots is supposed to be the VG Cats fans weak idea of an attack but it's making me laugh so hard I'm squirting water out my nose. Not because the comments are funny at all, but because it is so fucking pathetic that, honestly, it just has to be laughed at.
- Oh no! There is so much spam in the comments section, the blog is now useless! If only we hadn't made fun of VG Cats! What fools were we! The only consolation is the knowledge that we brought this plague upon ourselves! O pity us, mighty Ramsoomairianarianites! We are no match for your peerless wit!
- i've been having real awful dreams about giant apocalyptic machinery just mowing us all down
- Wow, VGcats fans are assholes, too.
- Wow, this went from actual discussion good follow-up criticism to Ramsoomair's fans attempting a /b/-tard-esque flood that is just sucking. I'll admit, I'm a regular reader of the comic, but I keep reading if not for the futile hope that Scott may one day put me into a fit of laughter. His work is unfunny, unoriginal, and his art? Well, he's gotten marginally better over the years, but his style has not changed from the generic emoticon faces he's always stuck to. I'm glad he hates his comic; a lot of people feel the same way, apparently. Now if only he had the sense to just fucking stop already.
- Ahahaha, Vgcats fans are not only furfags but terrible spammers too. Just goes to show you what kind of an audience Ramsoomair has managed to gather with his unfunny tripe.
- What a pussy attempt at a flood.
- VGCats is awful, and if these spam comments are indeed the act of angry VGCats fans, then it is pretty much their admission that they have accepted random OMGWTFBBQ internet shit over genuine humor. Seriously, when is there going to be a gaming-oriented webcomic out there that's actually really good? Penny Arcade does a decent job, but in the end it just doesn't do it for me. There's got to be a way to make gaming humor more universal without upsetting the hardcore gaming niches. Haven't seen it yet, though. Well, there's always Perry Bible Fellowship.
- They do it for the EPIC LULZ !
- It did have its moments, but it's really no good anymore. You know, I live in the same city as that dick, Ramsoomair. I bet if I tried I could find his address, go over & slit his little wog throat. What do you guys thing? Should I do it?
- Considering that not all the links led back to VGcats stuff (there was stuff from PvP and CAD also), I'd imagine that you're starting to make a few enemies, John. Are they that insecure in their ability to comic that they're spamming your comments section? I think tehkou said it best: "Oh no! There is so much spam in the comments section, the blog is now useless!" Heh.
- I see no spam.
- How can someone who is known to throw fits at his fans in conventions go to so many conventions and completely neglect the product he was originally presenting, ie the comic strip? Look at the main page, there is notice of him going to a convention just above the most recent update, which is a notice of him going to another convention. And the comic? "lol guyz im goin to con comic next monday which i really mean nex thursday if ur luky". Christ.
- To everyone just pasting link text into these comments: <a href="[link text here]">[text for people to click on]</a> Is that so hard to learn you bitches? It's 2007, for fuck's sake. I'm so functionally retarded that I get part time work as a nightstand and I can still form a goddamn link.
- You aren't the guy that keeps bawling and whining about CAD/VG Cats on 4chan, are you? Because it suddenly makes a lot of sense..
- I don't visit 4chan at all. All I know about it I've gotten from Encyclopaedia Dramatica. Why, does 4chan love VG Cats?
- Why wouldn't furry animu faggots like 4chan like VG Cats?
- Is that so hard to learn you bitches? It's 2007, for fuck's sake. I'm so functionally retarded that I get part time work as a nightstand and I can still form a goddamn link. It's not that people don't know to to place a link (although some probably don't), it's just all this "a href" stuff that people aren't used to- most places just have [url=whatever][/url]. People can't know what they haven't been told, can they? But, either way, you've told us, so now we know; it's no longer an issue.
- Because nobody can ever do things unless they've explicitly been told how with hand-holding instructions right next to the text entry box. Learning things on your own is bad.
- Blogger messes up the HTML sometimes. Don't ask me why.
- I hope you have plans of burning Least I Could Do and Looking For Group. The guy who writes these comics also started the ever shitty Blind Ferret Entertainment.
- " Hey Solomon I love your work! I don't know if you take pointers but you should make an article about Gunnerkrigg Court - man that comic is the epitome of awful! Check it out if you can handle the horrendous: http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/" Knew this post was coming from the moment you said something good about Gunnerkrigg. Took longer then I thought it wold.
- "Why, does 4chan love VG Cats?" Generally speaking, Anonymous has as much disdain for VGC as he does for CAD. Which is to say, about on your level. Of course, Anonymous hates everything.
- Because nobody can ever do things unless they've explicitly been told how with hand-holding instructions right next to the text entry box. Learning things on your own is bad. I never said that. I merely said that people are unlikely to come into a situation in possession of knowledge that they had no previous use for. What's more, when there is limited incentive to obtain that knowledge, they're unlikely to seek it by themselves. Whether this is "good" or "bad" is irrelevant, it's just how people are.
- Also, it's worth noticing that he put up a drawing of the two main characters in BDSM gear under his featured fanart. NOT A FURRY THOUGH
- Probably about the last 10 strips or so have been pretty lacking, but yeah, this is the first comic you've reviewed that I've actually liked. The PSP one made me smirk. The toilet humor one did too. Oh, and to whoever suggested Gunnerkrigg: you're a fucking moron. I am practically vibrating with anticipation, though, to read the CRFH post. What the hell am I doing still typing this comment?
- Hanging out in the comments pages around here retards your IQ at about one point per word typed. I am, of course, immune because of my godlike intellect.
- I personally like VG Cats style and the occasional strip but I can't help but agree with many of the points Solomon brings to the table. Whether Solomon has a comic or not is irrelevant, he's obviously read enough to form an opinion.
- Sigh. It hurts me that VG Cats is here, because I think the googly eyes are pretty cute. Sometimes the punchlines are stupid, and sometimes I don't get the strip at all, but...I like the googly eyes.
- infinity, it's okay to admit that you're shallow! I've enjoyed VGC - I'm glad to get away from the day with a little referential randomness now and then, like 4chan. But I'm never going to call it anything other than trashy, it's actually a good thing it hardly ever updates. I'm sure the recommendation list is pretty long already, but I'd suggest Triquetra Cats at some point - I put up with some pretty damn low standards in my entertainment, but I've never seen anything this bad. You wouldn't have to rant about (which would be a nice change of pace, faux-rage gets old very quickly), it's just so horrible in every way. The only redeeming point is that there are no furries yet, but even they could hardly make it worse.
- I only go there for the forum now. The comic stopped being funny a very long time ago. Also just so you know, no one (publicly) condones the retarded flooding of the comments on the forum. Heck, i'm not even sure if Scott is aware of this article.
- 'Why wouldn't furry animu faggots like 4chan like VG Cats?' Haha oh wow, that's retarded bandwagon jumping taken to a whole new level. Not that Anonymous needs defending, because Anonymous does not care. also you forgot the 'pedo' part.
- This post has been removed by the author.
- Heh. Point of interest: This post is the top google result for "your web comic sucks and you should feel bad". Dunno what that says.
- Says that people don't know the name of my blog, that's what it says.
- I can't really vouch for the rest of 4chan, but I know that /v/ specifically hates Ramsoomair with a burning, fiery passion. We hate Fuckley more though.
- I'm here to make a claim on behalf of the 4chan /co/ board that we also hate this terrible webcomic.
- After reading this I have acquired a newfound guilt for enjoying VGcats once upon a time... And I feel bad about it. So, not to jerk Mr. Solomon off or what have you, but I for one applaud his investigative journalism and await the anti-VGcats sequel with bated-breath.
- ...it's a webcomic, not a particularly funny one, but... complaining about the eyes? I don't read webcomics expecting much, I mean someone's posting a comic on the internet... meh. apparently a lot of people read your random blog though. *shrug* your reasoning sucks and vgcats can cause a chuckle or two. if you're going to insult things then might as well actually be enterainting with a vid or something. fail. and I love the kh2 comic! pretty much fits the game perfectly.
- complaining about the eyes? omg yeah i know its totally not like the eyes are part of the art, how dare john solomon be critical of them
- 'I for one applaud his investigative journalism' In all fairness the blog is more of a personal critique than a journalistic piece. It's opinion based, not fact-derived. The comments on humour are again, personally bias as humour and comedic value differs from person to person, country to country. Attacking a comic because you don't like it is fair enough, that's what blogs were invented for; its your own space, but I wouldn't call it journalism in any sense of the word.
- i think calling web comic’s art in the first place is a bit of a stretch
- It's opinion based, not fact-derived. Bingo!
- I feel a bit like I'm jumping on an already overcrowded bandwagon, but admitting this will be somewhat freeing. Shameful--yes, embarrassing--yes, but definitely freeing. As a teenager I lived in a very restrictive household (waddya mean you don't like exposition? Don't worry, it's very short). This meant that, while I was allowed a computer, I wasn't allowed to even CAST MINE EYES upon anything to do with the internet. I didn't even get access until I went to college, in '99... I didn't discover wecomics until around 2002. I shit you not. Searching for some advice about Baldur's Gate somehow led me to Penny Arcade.. which somehow led me to 8-Bit Theatre (??) which somehow led me to VG Cats. I had never really seen anything like it, and I didn't know what a furry was. I found it funny and unique. So here I am, years later, older and wiser, with a link to pseudo-furry porn in my favourites. I never got rid of it because... well, I suppose familiarity bred blind-spots, at least in this case. It was--really and truly--just this morning that I glanced at that lonely, untouched link (does the douche EVER update, EVER?) and wondered why I keep it around. Then I read your critique...Phew. Thank you for making me realize that I had really shitty taste as a younger person. On a side note--I wish CAD was a real person so I could stab it in the face. Physical violence towards Tim just doesn't seem like enough.
- If you really have time to badmouth a webcomic, you have time to get a real life. Seriously. You're being as bad as someone who critiques someone's fingers because they were born that way. This is a first grade skill. You're not the queen of webcomics, are ya? Stop acting like it.
- what
- "I'm Pantsman, I'm being RANDOM." @___@ O___O o 0 o Sad thing is, his furry porn would probably be more varied, and more entertaining.
- BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNN!!!!
- Pardon me while I make my way through this throng of self-important pretensious jackassery. Ah, here we are. Ahem. One would think that someone who dedicated the time and effort to maintain an entire blog full of lenthy diatribe about how not funny other things are would at least make some effort, some vain attempt, at making their own posts humorous, or at very least, not more inane and cringe-worthy than the targets of their ire. That same foolish person would also assume that the person who maintained this very blog that is supposedly dedicated to breaking up the "circle jerk" of web comics would not then languish in furious masturbation in the comments section of said blog, wolfing down giant boat-loads of blog junky semen spewed onto him by other self-important pricks who get their jollies by pretending that they actually know something about some form of art medium. Christ, would that person be wrong. Anyway, for troller clarification, I do not write or in any way associate with any web-comic, and yes I do enjoy VG Cats but it has become unreliable and degraded somewhat in quality. But while I do appreciate the momentary passion of rage you have managed to inspire through sheer force of your vapid holier-than-though banality, the primary reason I am bothering to write this before I depart and never again visit your worthless hell of callow self-worship (christ, at least the folks at CAD are trying to create something. They're doing a god-awful abysmal job, but at least they're trying) is in the vain hopes that someone out there who knows you will read this, agree, and randomly kick you in the balls some day for stealing the past 30 minutes of my life from me. Good day, sir.
- Whoever said that thing about self-referential humor, BINGO. You hit the nail on the god-damned head. Seems that almost everyone these days associates humor with referencing old crap, instead of taking the time to think of their own damn punchlines. A perfect example of this is The Simpsons. Do you think that it's lasted for 16+ years off originality? Fuck, no! All of their remotely funny jokes consist now of referencing old crap, while their original jokes are nowhere near to those of the original series. Oh, joy, ANOTHER save the earth episode! They just NEVER get old, do they?
- I was a fan of VGCats for a while. I still read it, as I'm keen on the art style, but I honestly can't remember the last time I laughted at it. I abandoned sluggy freelance a while ago. I still read penny arcade regularly, but actually mostly for honest opinions of upcoming games. The pedophilic or scatalogical humor stopped being funny for me a while back, though I'll still get a chuckle out of the occasional turn-of-phrase or new neoglism. I wouldn't say that it's a place I got to for the purpose of getting a laugh. I was actually redirected here from fullyramblomatic, which I found brilliant for its rapid and verbose overcriticism of games, but even that feels like it's wearing thin after just three weeks. ytmnd.com used to be consistently amazing, but I'm pretty sure it's dead now. Photoshop threads at Fark and SA are usually good for a laugh, but even these are drawing down to, maybe, 1 in 10 of the photoshops being particularly funny. Is it just me? Am I frickin' dying inside? Or is the internet honestly becoming less funny? Can anyone name the last, good, funny webcomic?
- I could name about ten or twenty good and funny webcomics, so they do exist. I don't want to name any of them, though, because that'd just entice morons to go and troll these webcomics out of association with me and so on. But don't give up hope! There are good webcomics out there! Find one and you'll probably find others.
- As much as this blog is based on opinion and not fact, I feel like pissing in the wind and trying to clarify some things. The Otakuthon story is incorrect. Scott was upset at being put on the 5th floor with no traffic, and he put his losses at that con at $600... Which isn't a huge deal. He rented a car to stay at a hotel that the con didn't pay for. I won't defend the comic, because everyone is entitled to their opinion (so far, mine has been exactly in line with yours, Mr. Solomon) but I'll defend Scott when it comes to his fans. Scott is the only webcomic artist I know that does free sketches for anyone that visits him at a con. He also tends to give away merchandise (...which is sometimes just because he only has a few left and doesn't want to pack them up...). He does not compare to Buckley, who I've met, and treated me like I wasn't fit to lick his talentless fucking feet. Probably because I didn't say 'OMG, CAD IS SO KEWL, SHOW ME YOUR PENIS FOR I AM GIRL HORNY FOR YOUR MAN MEAT'. (If you ever do a follow-up post on CAD, I do have some stories that would make Buckley look like an even bigger dick than he pretends to have.) ...Scott does need to update more, though. No lie. And now, as if my opinion wasn't completely invalidated by trying to defend Scott... *insert 4chan meme* Either way, agreeing or disagreeing, you make for a good read either way. Keep up the entertaining work.
- You mean stuff besides his rumored exposure to a minor, drunken disbandment of his WOW guild, and wikipedia editing?
- I guess the old equation is true: Internet + jackass = popular blog I do get tired of waiting weeks for Ramsoomair to update his comic, only to find yet another one that I don't find funny though. It's either something I don't play/watch (whatever happened to his promise of never doing a comic about anime?) or just something that's so old and cliche that it's just not funny. Like the Mario Sparta, or the most recent Dr. Mario one. Like no one's ever though that before. I do agree it's going downhill very fast. But dissing the guy's art style? Seems like a stretch to me. Maybe if you focused more on the reasons it's bad, expanding upon them, and less on trying to come up with thirty different ways to insult a person that may or may not have anything to actually do with the person or comic, it'd be more entertaining to read. People tend to pay more attention to something when it doesn't look like it's written by a teenager with attention needs. Everyone's got an opinion. But everyone's also entitled to disagree with said opinion.
- Bingo.
- I dunno, a lot of them are shitty, yes, but I guess part of the humor comes from fans of the games he parodies. I don't find any of the ones about games I haven't played even the least bit amusing, but when it comes Zelda or Halo, I at least get a chuckle or two.
- Rasoom-whateverthefuckhisGoddamnednameis whines too much, just like Buckley, and has a forum of asshole mods underneath him, too. Jesus Christ, can't all the "lulz two gamers on unfunny game parodies" die in a fire?
- I kept getting the impression that if the VG Cats creator started over with a new comic he could actually be good. VG Cats is stupid, but he has potential. Some of his jokes have good rhythm even if their subject matter makes them fall flat, and if his art was applied to something other then those two almost-furries he's fallen into a rut with, it could look really nice.
- Here's how you fix most VGCats strips: Either remove all the speech bubbles (works especially well with the Animal Crossing/Nook strip), or find the first punchline and remove everything after that.
- Man, this was a great post here. Oh wait, you were being serious. Not only did you complain about how "complicated" his layout was and how it scared people away despite his apparently large fanbase, but you also created a stereotype that is his supposed fanbase. Also, I would hope that comics have facial expressions, especially ones that correspond with the situation or text, or would the world not be able to handle anything more than monotone expressions? Then you go and state that the boring movie theatre background is horrible? I am sorry, but I do not think many theatres have interesting seating. Were you expecting a war going on in the background? As for the fans, not all are furries with less-than-adequate spelling and grammar. Not all of them are there just for the random jokes or referential humor. In fact, some of the jokes you claimed to get were based on the final panel or a quick skim because you must have missed the context of the joke. I have even gotten and found funny jokes that were based on games of which I knew little of the genre. As a side note, it is grammatically correct to not use contractions unless in quotations. Also you did not use proper citation format, so this can be considered as plagiarism. Also, you do not need to swear so much. You may have had valid points, but when someone swears that much I take it with a grain of salt. Over analyzing the same point also makes your entire post moot because it shows that you can not adequately display your point. You suffer the same problem as those stating the comic should end at the punchline. Better yet, why not only have the punchline and nothing else in the comic, seeing as how you seemed to do with the comics you linked. But I would truly like to see what you consider a good webcomic by either making one or listing one that you consider good. It does not have to be your favorite, but you apparently know what the epitome of webcomics should be, so everyone must love them. Or are you too afraid that you may just be placing them on a pedestal? I am not ashamed to say I am a fan of the comic, but I do not think all of his comics are hilarious. So I want you to show me a comic that will make my eyes bleed from the beauty and my brain explode from the excellent writing.
- Care to explain this--> http://vgcats.com/temp/lolbadge.jpg Why does he still have it, if you claim he threw it at someone in a fit of rage?
- You know, the whole blog was just filled mostly with rants and personal attacks on Scott Ramsoomair. You have never met the guy, and neither have I. You stated he is a "dick". Well for one thing, I could be a mass murder who talks in "leet" speech, and lives with a family of gorillas. Or I could be a super intelligent robot that can stop time. You should not talk crap about people you don't even know. Although you can, it makes your argument seem very ineffective. I respect you opinion against VG Cats, (Although I do not support it) but I rarely saw any valid points. Because the background was reused? I wonder when every single theater layout and chair design looked completely different. It may not be that way where you live, but it's nearly all the same where I live. I also highly doubt that stereotypes make a valid point as well. Because all the fans are furries, and so called "leet speakers"? I am a fan, but am I typing like I have brain damage? That also renders you argument obsolete. I have yet to see you post an argument that makes sense. Ramsoomair could call it VG Humans, and everything would be exactly the same. Upon reading your Top 10 Complaints, you state, "Now, I know that some of you belong to the school of thought that says anything can be shit and that's okay if it's their style, but that shit doesn't fly." Who is to say what "shit" is? The All Mighty God of Webcomics? Does such a God exist? Do you proclaim yourself to be that God? I clearly read in the 7 Sins of Webcomics that you despise gluttony. Yet, you yourself, proclaimed that you know what taste is, and you know what "gold" is. It's all just you, you, you. I do admire how you call yourself a hypocrite at times, but that, once again, makes your argument "shit". All I am saying is that you can find better ways to convince people. The fact that you state that you have studied literature, and writing, gives me the impression that you can. Have a great day.
- All the review said was "VGCATS R BAD" over and over again with no real supporting evidence. IMO, VG Cats has some hilarious comics and some that go over my head. As for copy and paste, I notice that some of the Sunday comics do that too. Perhaps you should make reviews of them, albeit you should not use the Maddox approach (yes, I saw that crossword, and I feel that is a poor response to criticism, so I will tell you that your style is somewhat akin to Maddox's) and be a straight man.
- Wow...if anything I would have to say that you sir, are the only dick here. You're attacking someone based on their webcomic. Unless you know Rasoomair in person and can say he is a dick, you should keep your opinions to yourself. I take it that you've dedicated your life to making everyone else in the world just as much of an ass as you are by jumping on the bashing bandwagon. The webcomic itself has had its bad moments, but for those who enjoy video games, this comic is amusing, just like CAD. If you don't like the comic why would you go so far as to make an ass of yourself trying to bash it. Your life is better spent sticking your head up your ass like you have up until this point. PS: I know you will read this and go "That is some 15 year old trying to act like his balls have dropped." So go ahead and think that, but just remember the truth hurts when you don't want to read it.
- "Sometimes the punchlines are stupid, and sometimes I don't get the strip at all, but...I like the googly eyes." Which is why you are an idiot. It's just the same old gaming comic, as Dan said, it rides on other things in order to make a joke. With SUPER KAWAII bullshit animu eyes. God. I'm begining to hate Gaiaonline even more now.
- I'm grumpy and opinionated!
- King Solomon knows whats right (Ass licker mode: Off)
- hey,you just said vgcats suck over and over.
- sorry that was me iam a fan of vgcats and DA,but some of yours comics you metion to suck balls
- I thought you could've also mocked the way the jokes rely too much on unrelated sexual deviancy. 'NOT A FURRY GUYS HONEST' 'closet furry webcomic' 'one thousand and two other references to how furries are filthy sins against our lord' Oh no. Wait. Seriously, how long before you begin screaming 'destroy the disgusting furry dens, Reichsmarshall' and declaring a holy jihad or whatever idiots are doing these days.
- I've met Scott. He's really nice, especially considering that when I saw him, he had been signing autographs at a near non-stop rate for several hours. He signed my poster (a vg cats one btw), drew a little sketch, and told me to have a nice day, ALL WHILE FLASHING A GENUINE SMILE. I'm appalled you could be such a dick to a guy you've never met in person. "Why do you see the speck in your brother's eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye?" Luke 6:41
- This blog is always Epic win. I know you consider praises to be too embarrassing, still I have to say 'WELL DONE'. And for a nice punchline, BINGO!
- Hey. I'm the guy who was defending furries a couple of posts back. Yeah. I defended them because I thought they were just a group of people who had fallen victim to the latest trolling bandwagon. Then I saw some furry art. I nearly gouged my eyes out. The only thing that stopped me was the thought that I wouldn't be able to find a bridge to leap off. So, in conclusion, sorry to everyone I insulted. Except the bastard who drew those pictures. He/she/it can go hug a train.
- Anybody who has read through all these comments and wants to really piss off Scotty should flood his inbox with VG Cats porn. It never ceases to amaze me how much it pisses him off.
- I agree and disagree with you on your blog about how horrid this webcomic is. Firstly, you are right about the writing. The humor seems to fade away with every 3-5 comics or so, but then seems to spike up again somehow. Yes, it can be assumed that Scott Ramsoomair is a vile person, but I have neither met nor seen him in person. Therefore, that is not for me to judge. His writing may be the result of his so-called "busy busy schedule", or his (alleged) hate of his own comic. If the latter is true, then he should probably start over, and spare himself the burden of being referred to as a "dick" or a "lazy jackass". If, however, the former is a fact, then I tolerate his somewhat lackluster writing, because we are all human, ladies and gentlemen. No one, not even Scott, is perfect. I must point out, Solomon, that your constant whining over the "googly eyes" and aggressive-but-pointless statement against the "reused theater background" makes me feel better about myself (no offense, though, my good man). If people were to state their opinion on something awful so as to convince them to reject it from their lives, then they would avoid having to condemn one minuscule detail one too many times. It creates an air of repetitiveness, therefore, making your opinion less favorable to people. Another thing is, that you should keep some of your thoughts to yourself, trust me, it helps keep your reputation stable. One example of this is when you say that most/all of the comic's fans are furries, and that they masturbate to the main characters. Really now, do you have the conclusive evidence to your accusations? If so, then why, my good sir, did you not post them here to justify what you are implying? I tell you, it will not be enough to convince all the good people here, due to the fact that you hardly have any evidence incriminating the fans. Lastly, I would like to say that you swear too much, and that it degrades your blog into something less professional, and turns it into something of a taped-together mess of rants and raves against the creator (whom you haven't met, I undoubtedly assume). It is with full respect that I correct and criticize your own opinions, Mr. Solomon, and I do wish you learn from what has been said. I do not expect you to take into mind what I have said here, although I hope you would understand... We are all neither perfect, nor almighty to judge anyone or anything. We are, after all, human. P.S. If I may, John Solomon, I would like to suggest that you confirm your opinions with hard evidence beforehand, to further clarify these accusations. I have been reading VGC for quite some time now, and I have yet to find anything in it that would seem utterly vile, disgusting, or primitive to offend me. I bid you goodbye, and since I may never come back to your blog again, I only hope that you would readjust yourself, at least, to a small extent.
- I am sorry, but VGCats isn't bad. Most of the time you are attacking Scott personally, or just ranting on about the eyes. I enjoy reading the comics, they ARE funny (if you get the joke). Ofcourse, if you are a guy who always needs to find something to criticize, then you won't enjoy it. I want to see you doing it better than Scott. There are prolly lots of people enjoying the comic.
- To be honest, I used to like this comic, this one for example made me laugh, as well as this one. But it seems like he lost his inspiration not long after that
- John Solomon is Charlie Brooker.
- at shit and die.
- Ugh, you are so redundant... Your blog is bad and you should feel bad.
- You know, this was the first webcomic I ever discovered. How young and foolish I was back then, I actually liked it. Oh well, I discovered that the web had GOOD comics too, so no harm no foul. The VGCats link is in my recycle bin now. See ya later, Ramsoomair.
- "Man, this was a great post here. Oh wait, you were being serious. Not only did you complain about how "complicated" his layout was and how it scared people away despite his apparently large fanbase, but you also created a stereotype that is his supposed fanbase." I am somewhat disturbed that the latest flood of supporters of the comic do not seem to have read what they were being so venomous about. What I got out of it was that John Solomon was stating the comic has a decent, "Solid," design, but he has seen good comics without them. As for John Solomon ever saying, the comic sucks over and over, I just did a ctrl-f and suck or sucks showed up once in reference that it would still sick if a variable changed. The other suck usage was a general paraphrase of the DS vs. PSP comic. Finally, I must say the, "You haven't met him in real life," start up for a counter-attack to some of the points is getting old. What makes it worse is one simple fact: You don't know whether or not he has met the man before.
- I'm very disappointed. It's pretty obvious that you have a personal problem with Scott and decided to take it out in this way. I just hope you realize that your points are basically all subjective. There are other ways to handle dislike for other people, and to make ignorant opinionated points against their work in the hopes that you convince some of the majority of brainless peons on the internet that your opinion is fact and Scott is a horrible person is not the best way to handle things. This entire "article" made you seem like a jealous younger brother. You honestly made no real points as to why it's a bad webcomic, you just criticized someone's way of expressing their feelings and opinions; No reason for you to do it, his website doesn't hurt you, and there's no reason it should offend you on such a personal level as it seems to. Honestly, I don't like VGCats, and I agree it's not a good comic, but your points are so immature and don't reflect any real reason as to why; It's just your opinion of good comic-form stated in a way as to present the illusion of it being objective. Just remember, you are not the end-all voice of the webcomic world, no one is. You have no right to act like your opinion on what makes a comic good or bad is the only opinion. You won't make yourself popular by saying that anyone who disagrees with you is an idiot, which is a fallacy, by the way. Just see if you can be a little more logical about your reasons instead of saying "It's bad because I just don't like it."
- There's a difference between critiquing and blindly firing insults. I imagine you're someone who gets a kick out of having a high views and comments, so you bash everything, in hopes of stirring up shit. I agree that VGCats dips for like 3-4 comics (Which takes forever to come out), but he usually follows it up with a stellar, and comical one. I keep checking in one a month. YOU however are the kind of person that makes a blog to BASH something that is supplied to your for free. It's rather funny how juvenile you are. It would be as if someone baked you a plate of brownies, and you sat there, eating them, while taking your friend how they used way to many nuts, and it's not flaky enough, and how you wish there was more of a chocolate taste. If you were my 'friend', I would probably lift the plate over your head. But then, I doubt you have many 'friends' to offend. And no, people wont take your 'word for gospel', because then you would have loyal followers, just like VGCats, and your work sucks even worst than his. Your Blog is bad, and you should probably stop. Oh wait, you already have. Thank god. I haven't read one good posting from you. Enjoy Taco Bell's, or whatever fast food chain you work at, paycheck.
- You know, I've never actually read VG Cats before this - I found a link to this 'article' on another webcomic (that referenced VG). But I've got to say, I think I just might start reading it. Apparently, our tastes in webcomics are vastly different, because the 'bad' comics you linked to, I actually happened to enjoy. Apart from that, though, I have to ask: why, exactly, did you feel the need to write this? So you don't think it's a good webcomic - so what? Plenty of other people are perfectly happy with it. Just because you have some personal dislike for it, whether logical, rational, or not, did you really feel the need to bash it so extensively? If you don't like it, don't read it. It's as simple as that.
